Cell survival as a determinant of tumor cure for rat 9L subcutaneous tumors following microwave-induced hyperthermia.

The relationship of cell survival to tumor cure after local hyperthermia treatment was studied in subcutaneous 9L rat tumors. Tumors weighing 0.2-0.4 g were heated to 42.5, 43.0, 44.0 and 45.0 degrees C by local exposure to 2450 MHz microwaves. Cell survival data was obtained by an in vivo to in vitro colony forming technique and a cell survival curve was constructed for each temperature as a function of exposure duration (0-180 min). Cell survival followed a simple exponential function with an increasingly steeper slope as temperature increased. At 44 degrees C, it was observed that cells from large tumors (1.0-1.4 g) were inactivated at the same rate as those from small tumors. When tumor response was monitored in the small tumors for 90 days following treatment, a direct correlation between the percentage of tumor cures and time at 44 degrees C (0-60 min) was observed; therefore, at 44 degrees C, tumor cure was exponentially related to cell survival in this range. However, when approximately the same cell survival was obtained with 3 other temperature--time regimens, the resulting percentage of tumor cures was not the same. These results indicate that while cell survival is related to tumor cure, it is probably not the primary determinant of tumor response following local hyperthermia in these 9L subcutaneous tumors.